


The Great Frame-up

by rikyl



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-28
Updated: 2011-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-18 04:41:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10609473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rikyl/pseuds/rikyl
Summary: Ben gives Leslie a gift after the Harvest Festival. Written for a ficathon prompt.Originally posted to LJ.





	

At 7 a.m. the Monday after the Harvest Festival ended, Ben Wyatt emerged from his room, one hand fixing his tie, the other trying not to spill a styrofoam cup of motel coffee, and stepped squarely on his morning newspaper. He looked down to see his clumsy footprint smearing across a giant, joyful headline: “Harvest Best-ival!” Awesome. For the briefest moment, he considered swapping for a clean copy outside one of the other motel rooms, but that didn’t feel right. He didn’t want to deprive someone else of reading an unblemished story about Leslie’s hard work.

 

And that’s how he ended up walking through the door of the Pawnee Journal building 10 minutes later. No one was at the front desk, but a gruff male voice called from the back: “Shauna! See who’s up there.” Then a perky-looking brunette emerged from an office and walked over.

 

“Well, it’s Ben Wyatt,” she smiled at him.

 

Oh, great, his reputation preceded him.

 

“Hi, um, I just need some extra copies of today’s paper. Three. No, actually, make that six.”

 

“Handing them out to all your friends?” she teased pleasantly.

 

“No, I just really like punny headlines,” he said dryly. “I’m going to hang them up all over my motel room.”

 

She laughed softly and started counting out half a dozen copies. “Well, I can’t take credit for that headline. That was all Leslie.”

 

“You let her write your headlines?” Did Leslie run everything in this town?

 

“Not usually. But she’s always suggesting them when I interview her—she’s so cute—and this time I decided to go with it. Seemed like she deserved it, you know?”

 

“Yeah, I know,” he murmured, taking the newspapers from her. “How much do I owe you?”

 

“Don’t worry about it, we always have extras,” Shauna said, smiling sweetly. Did this woman ever stop smiling? “I’ll let you buy me a coffee, though, if you want. We could go somewhere and talk for a bit.”

 

“Oh, no thank you! I don’t do interviews anymore. Haven’t had the best luck with the media lately. I mean, you probably saw how I flamed out on Pawnee Today.”

 

“Don’t be so hard on yourself! I thought it was cute. … But actually, I didn’t mean professionally. Just, you know, two people getting coffee, getting to know each other ...”

 

Oh, God, seriously? What was she, 22? But he almost considered it … not because he was interested, but just because he’d been tying himself in knots over Leslie for months, and it might be nice to have a pretty girl flirt with him over beverages for twenty minutes. But he wasn’t the kind of guy who could use a woman for an ego boost, even if it was just coffee.

 

“Oh, um, thanks. I really can’t. Pretty busy and everything.”

 

"Okay, well let me know if you ever change your mind."

 

"Right," Ben said distractedly. He was looking down at the stack of papers, that huge headline that Leslie had written herself, and suddenly realized she’d want to put it up on her wall. And he had an idea.

 

“Say, do you happen to know where there’s a framing shop in town?” he asked Shauna.

 

Her smile just slightly less bright, Shauna nodded. “Sure. Do you know where J.J.’s is? Two blocks north of there.”

 

“Great. Thanks,” he said, and turned to go.

 

Just as he reached the door, he heard Shauna say, “So, you and Leslie then,” and he stopped short.

 

“Me and Leslie … what?”

 

“Nothing. Just using my reporter’s instincts.” She winked at him knowingly, tapped a perfectly manicured finger to her forehead, and waved goodbye.

 

Out on the street, he took a moment to adjust to the impossibly bright October sunlight, and to the fact that he was apparently attractive to pretty little twenty-somethings. That was new. He found it flattering but oddly depressing—that this random person would just come on to him like it was nothing, while meanwhile the woman he really wanted seemed to be keeping him squarely in the friend zone.

 

\------

 

Half an hour later he emerged from The Great Pawnee Frame-up with two hulking newspaper-sized frames (because at the last second, he decided he wanted one himself) and put them in the back of his car. Suddenly, looking at them filling his backseat, he felt like a fool.

 

Was this crazy? Wasn’t this the equivalent of walking into her office with a huge “hello, I’m secretly in love with you” sign across his chest?

 

Okay, so what if it was. Was he trying to keep that a secret? Did he want to stay in the friend zone forever? Because, yeah, that strategy really seemed to be working for him so far.

 

He thought of the way she had looked at him when she said “I’m glad you’re here.” The terrible brevity of that hug. And the way she had called over to him when Lil Sebastian had whinnied, in a way that almost felt like they were already a couple.

 

That was it, he made up his mind, he was going to do this.

 

He slammed the car door and drove. Feeling giddy and determined, he made his way to her office. She was the only one in yet, saving him from having to cart this thing in front of all their coworkers.

 

She was sitting at her desk, reading the Pawnee Journal with a small smile, and for a moment he just stood in her doorway watching her. Then she glanced up and her expression turned to glee.

 

“Ben! You’re here. Did you see this?”

 

He smiled back at her, clutching the frame to his side. “Yes, I saw it.”

 

“They used my headline and everything. And there’s a picture of us on Page 3 with Lil Sebastian.”

 

“I know. It’s wonderful.”

 

Finally she noticed he was carrying something. “What’s that?”

 

He grinned at her and slid the frame across her desk. “I thought you’d like to have this for your wall.”

 

She was speechless for a moment as she looked at it, her eyes shining and her mouth open a little bit. Then suddenly she got up and ran around the desk to hug him. Surprised, he almost didn’t hug her back before she broke away again.

 

“I can’t believe you did that for me. It’s … it’s perfect.”

 

He smiled shyly at the floor. “It was nothing. I just wanted to do something for you after all this.”

 

“Well, thank you. I’m going to hang it up right now!” She started rifling through her drawers. “Let me just find a tack. Do you think a tack will hold it?”

 

Quietly he reached a hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a picture-hanging nail, which he’d made sure to get at the frame shop. And somehow Leslie had a hammer handy. As she started to tap it into the wall, she suddenly stopped. “Wait. What about your copy? Don’t you want one to keep? Here, you can have mine!”

 

“That’s okay. I actually stopped at the Pawnee Journal office, and Shauna gave me a bunch.”

 

“Oh, Shauna. She’s so nice. I’m so glad she used my headline this time.”

 

“Yeah. You know, it was weird actually. I think she asked me out.” Why did he say that? He knew immediately it was stupid, he was ruining the moment, but he wanted to see her reaction. Did she care if he went out with someone else?

 

Leslie paused and frowned at him, blinking. “Oh … well … she’s nice,” she repeated, unconvincingly.

 

“I didn’t say yes,” he added quickly, trying not to be too pleased that he had made Leslie frown.

 

“You didn’t?”

 

“Nah. She’s not really my type.”

 

Leslie smiled at him, tentatively this time. “Oh. Well, thank you, Ben. For the frame. For everything.”

 

“No problem,” he murmured, backing out of her office and smiling.

 

Maybe he wasn’t completely in the friend zone after all.


End file.
